Freedom
What does it mean to be free? For some it means having
enough money to do whatever you want, for others its having no parents or
guardians to tell you what to do, for most it’s possibilities. I haven’t
figured out what it means for me yet, all I know is that I want it!
Desperately. From my experience it seems as if everyone does.
What is it that we all want to be free of?
“Then let us be rid of it” – The Lord of the Rings, the
Return of the King. They journey to a dangerous land, bound by a great evil.
This evil is a tool for great power. Power and the desire for it doesn’t seem
evil, and yet every story ever told revolves around the fact that there is one
power hungry individual that tramps on everyone and everything to get it. Is it
the power that’s evil? The object that gives us the power? The ring itself
isn’t evil, the objects that give us power isn’t evil. What is, is the desire
to do whatever it takes to get it… It’s us, the evil within us. The objects
magnify our greed. They give us an unnatural drive to own, that desperation to
do whatever it takes to get it.
In the movie, The Forbidden Kingdom, there is a fight over
the elixir of immortality. It is said that one sip of this brew brings an end
to mortal pain and desire. The elixir is freedom.
The common denominator in all stories is the lesson of greed,
fear, desire and power. We are taught in so many different ways not to give in
to these and yet we all do.
Greed…it all comes down to greed. Why would you feel the
need for freedom if you didn’t feel greed? Realistically we are all greedy,
whether we’re greedy in a relationship, or when it comes to shoes, or clothes,
or money, material things…in our minds we need these things to be “free”. We
think like this not only because we want to own, but because we want people to
envy us. We all want to be accepted and we think we will if people envy what we
have. We convince ourselves that if we have material things, we’ll be truly
happy, and being happy means you are free, loved, accepted.
He (or she) who is free of greed is free of fear and truly
understands what it means to be free.
